Dakota Ryan Hudson (born September 15, 1994) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

for the St. Louis Cardinals of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2018.

Amateur career

Hudson attended Sequatchie County High School in Dunlap,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. During his junior year in 2012, he committed to

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Unive ...

to play

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

. As a senior, he had a 1.09

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA) with 124 strikeouts in 64 innings. Hudson was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 36th round of the

2013 Major League Baseball draft The 2013 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft was held from June 6 through June 8, 2013. The first two rounds were broadcast from Studio 42 of the MLB Network in Secaucus, New Jersey. Each team received one selection per round, going in ...

, but he did not sign and attended Mississippi State. As a freshman in 2014, Hudson started five games and made one relief appearance. He went 1–2 with a 4.67 ERA and 10 strikeouts. As a sophomore in 2015, he made 17 appearances in relief, going 1–1 with a 4.32 ERA with 26 strikeouts. Hudson then pitched for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks of the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thousan ...

in the summer of 2015 before returning to starting his junior year in 2016. Hudson started 17 games for the Bulldogs, going 9–5 with a 2.55 ERA and 115 strikeouts in 113 innings pitched. He was named to the All-SEC First Team.

Professional career

Minor leagues

Dakota Hudson Texas League ASG 01 (cropped)

Hudson was considered a top prospect for the

2016 Major League Baseball draft The 2016 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft began on June 9, 2016, to assign amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order is the reverse order of the 2015 MLB season standings. In addition, compensation picks will be d ...

, and he was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round (34th overall). He signed for $2M and was assigned to the

Gulf Coast League Cardinals The Florida Complex League Cardinals are a Rookie-level affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, competing in the Florida Complex League of Minor League Baseball. Prior to 2021, the team was known as the Gulf Coast League Cardinals. The team plays ...

, and after pitching four scoreless innings in four games, was promoted to the

Palm Beach Cardinals The Palm Beach Cardinals are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. They are located in the town of Jupiter in Palm Beach County, Florida, and play their home games at Roge ...

, where he finished the season with a 1–1 record and 0.96 ERA in eight appearances out of the bullpen. He began 2017 with the Springfield Cardinals and was named the starting pitcher for the

Texas League The Texas League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated in the South Central United States since 1902. It is classified as a Double-A league. Despite the league's name, only its five South Division teams are actually based in the ...

All-Star Game, which took place on June 27. After earning a 9–4 record and 2.53 ERA in 18 starts, he was promoted to the

Memphis Redbirds The Memphis Redbirds are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. They are located in Memphis, Tennessee, and are named for their Major League Baseball affiliate. The Redbir ...

on July 29. For Memphis, he started seven games, posting a 1–1 record and 4.42 ERA. He was named the Texas League Pitcher of the Year. Hudson was a non-roster invitee to 2018 spring training. He began the 2018 season in Memphis, and was named the starting pitcher for the

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

All-Star Game that was played on July 11. In July 2018, he was selected to represent the Cardinals in the 2018

All-Star Futures Game The All-Star Futures Game is an annual baseball exhibition game hosted by Major League Baseball (MLB) in conjunction with the mid-summer MLB All-Star Game. A team of American League-affiliated prospects competes against a team of National League ...

St. Louis Cardinals (2018–present)

Hudson was promoted to the major leagues on July 27, 2018. He spent the remainder of the season in St. Louis, compiling a 4–1 record with a 2.63 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP in relief innings pitched. Hudson was named St. Louis' fifth starter going into the 2019 season. Over 33 games (32 starts) during the regular season, he went 16-7 with a 3.35 ERA, striking out 136 over innings, and had the highest ground balls percentage in the majors (56.9%), and the lowest fly balls percentage in the majors (21.3%). He led all major league pitchers in walks, with 86, had the highest walks/9 innings ratio in the major leagues (4.43), had the highest walks percentage in the major leagues (11.4%), and had the worst strikeouts/walks ratio in the majors (1.58). On September 28, 2020, Hudson underwent

Tommy John surgery Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, colloquially known as Tommy John surgery (TJS), is a surgical graft procedure where the ulnar collateral ligament in the medial elbow is replaced with either a tendon from elsewhere in the patient's bo ...

. On the year, Hudson had recorded a 2.77 ERA over 39 innings pitched. On April 15, 2021, Hudson was placed on the 60-day injured list as he continued to recover from Tommy John surgery. He was activated on September 24, and pitched innings for the Cardinals in 2021. In 2022 he was 8-7 with a 4.45 ERA, and had the lowest strikeout:walk ratio among major league pitchers, at 1.3. On January 13, 2023, Hudson agreed to a one-year, $2.65 million contract with the Cardinals, avoiding salary arbitration.

Personal life

Hudson proposed to girlfriend Ashlen Cyr in March 2017. The two were married on December 9, 2017, and their first child, a son, was born on May 7, 2018.

References

External links

Mississippi State Bulldogs bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hudson, Dakota 1994 births Living people Sportspeople from Chattanooga, Tennessee Baseball players from Tennessee Major League Baseball pitchers St. Louis Cardinals players Mississippi State Bulldogs baseball players Hyannis Harbor Hawks players Gulf Coast Cardinals players Palm Beach Cardinals players Springfield Cardinals players Memphis Redbirds players